Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Competition No 3833

Set by Margaret Rogers, 24 May

You were asked for verses from the disaffected to mark the 25th anniversary of Mrs Thatcher's becoming Prime Minister in May 1979.

Report by Ms de Meaner

Some excellent entries. That Woman obviously inspires you still. I was sorry to lose El Basilio ("She came with the opportune words of St Francis/With the iron in her soul and the feminine glances") and Robin Oakley-Hill ("Spouting St Francis Fukuyama's text/ A future plural grandmother appeared"). Hon menshes to you both, as well as Anne Du Croz, Bruce Alter, Joanna Crooks, John Nye and D A Prince. I thought some of you a little harsh, however ("Rejoice, rejoice, the bitch is dead/Or will be soon, I've heard it said"). So bitter! £15 to the winners. The overall champion is Josh Ekroy, who also gets the Tesco vouchers.

She well knew what was done in her name.

The security forces were under

Her direct control, she must take the

blame.

The disappeared cry for vengeful thunder!

For the legitimisation of greed

She must answer. Doctors told her to stop

Jabbering, but they never did succeed.

Now is the time to give the final chop.

She must be stripped of her immunity

From prosecution. What's a heart

attack?

There is such a thing as society!

Now is the time to bring true justice back.

Twenty-five years we have waited in vain;

A chance like this will never come again.

Josh Ekroy

Remember it like yesterday,

The grocer's girl who beat the grocer:

The fine-spun hair, the urge to pray -

And closer,

That gimlet eye, the cutpurse lip,

An aldermanic burst of laughter,

Her wire basket at her hip

And after

This, a quartered century,

Her firm look here, as we were spaniel

Puppies learning, at her knee,

Her manual.

How far from there to where we live:

New Labour, new Conservative.

Bill Greenwell

Come back Maggie, it's all forgiven,

Well, perhaps not strictly all,

But you were never the poodle

Of Yankee Doodle,

As far as I recall.

Maybe it wasn't the best of times.

OK, it was the worst,

But it wasn't spin,

The state we were in,

And it wasn't the fifty-first.

We lost our jobs, our homes, our

schools

At mighty alarming rates;

We were a divided nation,

But we weren't the United States.

David Silverman

So congratulations

Iron Lady

On the Silver Jubilee

Of your arrival at No 10.

The poll tax made you

Unpopular

And the miners won't forget

You in a hurry.

It's fair to say

Your legacy

Is high house prices

And the end of

The cold war

Plus lots of greed and selfishness.

John O'Byrne (after E J Thribb)

No 3836 Set by Gavin Ross

The temperance movement had rousing songs and hymns to convey its message: "See the poor old drunkard go staggering to and fro! Do you want to be like him? No! No! No!" Can we have similar offerings in aid of the Campaign Against Obesity?

To be in by 24 June (to appear in issue dated 5 July). E-mail: comp@newstatesman.co.uk

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